Notes from the Administrator

Sorry for the delay in getting April‘s Administrators Update to you. May came upon us a lot faster than I was expecting.

April was a very busy month for the county starting with the seating of the Richland County Board for the 2026 - 2028 session. We have four new members and two open seats. Districts 19 and 20 represent Buena Vista Township. If you are interested in being a supervisor on the Richland County Board, and live in one of these districts, please submit a letter of interest to the County Administrator’s office. Letters of interest are due by 8 am on June 15. For more information on this please go to the News and Announcements section of the Richland County website.

We had a procedural error with the election of the County Board Chair and Vice Chair at the Organizational Meeting. Our Rules of the Board state, “A majority of votes of the Board Members present shall be necessary to elect the Board Chair and Board Vice Chair.” The first election votes for the Chair were split 8 – 7 – 3 for the three candidates. At the end of that vote, there should have been another round of voting until one member received a majority. The Vice Chair election results were distributed 8 – 4 – 4 - 2 among the four. When it was brought to the county‘s attention, immediate action was taken to remedy the situation, and a new election was held days later. This election did not change the results. The Board Chair for the 2026-2028 session is Kerry Severson, and the Vice Chair is Larry Engel. I look forward to working with them and all the members of the Board.

In the month of April, the county passed a Tobacco Free Parks ordinance. This is something that Partners for Prevention and Youth for Change have been working on for a very long time. The city passed their ordinance a little over a year ago and when brought to the County Board in April, they unanimously approved the ordinance. Youth for Change is an amazing group of young individuals who look to better our community. We appreciate all that they have done in this endeavor.

The full county board held a special board meeting on May 5. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the future of Emergency Medical Services in Richland County. There are two main decisions for the Board to make. The first is should the county create a Countywide Emergency Medical service, which would allow the county to levy outside of the levy limit to fund EMS across the entire county. The second question is should the Richland County Ambulance Service continue to be in existence or should we look for a third-party provider. Both questions are very difficult questions and there is not an easy answer. The recording of this meeting can be found on the Richland County website. Please feel free to go and watch the video and if you have thoughts on either of these two items, please be reaching out to the Supervisors of the Richland County Board. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to board members or me. The board intends to vote on both items on May 19.

The primary reason to create a Countywide Emergency Medical Service would be to allow the county to levy outside of the levy limit and tax all property taxpayers to fund Emergency Medical Services across the county. The county would then distribute the funds to the services that provide Emergency Medical Services across the county. These funds must be used for emergency medical responses only.

The county can also levy outside of the levy limit some expenses related to the Richland County Dispatch Center as part of a Countywide Emergency Medical Service. Calls to dispatch are often in three categories; police fire and ambulance. The county could levy outside of the limit a third of these costs. This option was briefly discussed but was not built into any of the formulas presented at the May 5 meeting. If the county decides to levy outside the levy limit, there is a chance that these costs will also be added. If the county decides to go down this path, the final proposal will be shared with DOR to ensure compliance.

One additional step the county took regarding the Ambulance Service was to put out a Request for Proposal (RFP). This will give the county the opportunity to see which other entities could provide the service in our community and at what cost. The purpose of doing this is to see if there is a more cost-effective way that we can provide the service to the community. All EMS services have the same requirements that they are required to fulfill.

The RFP‘s will be reviewed at the May 12 Executive and Finance Committee meeting. Please note this does not mean that the county has already decided to go with a thirdparty provider. This just provides the county board all information that is needed to make a decision. If the decision is made to go with a third-party provider, the entities who submitted bids will be presenting their proposal at the May 26 Executive and Finance committee meeting.

The Ad Hoc County Facilities Planning Committee met for the last time in April. The purpose of the committee was to take the opportunity to review all county facilities and start to prepare a master list of tasks that need to be completed. The county has deferred maintenance on many of its buildings over the years. It is now time that we make a plan to take care of our buildings and maintain them as they should be in the hope that in the future, we don’t have to worry about the deferred maintenance. This will also prevent the county from having to make emergency fixes to our buildings because we have waited too long to make the corrections. The next step will be to create a plan that includes estimates with a renovation schedule. It will go to Executive and Finance Committee and then to the full county board for its final approval. The goal is to have this plan completed by the end of July.

In early May the county received the final agreement for the $2 million grant for the campus property. As you may recall, when the campus shut down the State Legislature stepped up and advocated for the counties who were losing this resource. The $2 million will provide a start to rebuild the loss to the community. The county has focused these funds on making improvements to Symons and making the campus property amenable to future development. This will include the demolition of the Science, Library, and Classroom Buildings. At this point in time a decision has not been made on the Wallace Student Center/Coppertop Theatre. There has been interest in revitalizing the building but until we know more the buildings’ future is unknown.

The county will be hosting a rummage sale at the campus property on June 6. It will be a cash and carry sale. The hours of the rummage sale will be from eight to noon.